An Old Blog Entry from the Pokémon Anime’s Creator Suggests Ash’s Adventure Was Just a Dream

Before his tragic death in 2010, Takeshi Shudo was one of the driving forces behind the Pokémon anime and the entire Pokémon brand. He was one of the creators of the Pokémon TV series and served as the chief writer for the first few seasons of the show.

This entry, like the rest of the blog, was originally published in Japanese, and it was more or less forgotten about over the past seven years. A few days ago, a Reddit user named NAveryW found the post while looking through Shudo’s blog and translated it into English for the first time. Here is NAveryW’s translation:

“Months and years having passed, Satoshi [Ash], who has become an old man, suddenly remembers the old days. It is an embellished memory of childhood. A fantasy…The imaginary creatures, Pokémon, and their adventure. Friendship. Coexistence. That is, in the real human world, something Satoshi could not possibly encounter. However, somewhere in childhood, surely Pikachu and the other Pokémon are there, Musashi and Kojirou are there, Mewtwo is there…

“Not just that; everyone Satoshi encountered on his childhood adventure can be seen in the elderly Satoshi’s eyes. Satoshi hears his mother’s voice in his ear. “Come along, hurry to bed. You set off on your journey in the morning, don’t you?” The next morning, woken up by his mother, Satoshi, once again in the form of a young boy, energetically rushes out of the house.

This is a search “Not to catch Pokémon, not a journey to become a Pokémon Master, but to discover what I am”, a journey with the goal of coexisting with others.” —Takeshi Shudo

Needless to say, this news has left many Pokémon fans devastated. Many have criticized Shudo for writing this, saying that it would be an awful ending for the show, as it would invalidate the events of the entire franchise. Of course, it’s unlikely that the current writers of the Pokémon anime will actually use this ending in the show at some point in the future, and it’s not certain whether Shudo would have implemented it himself if he was alive today.

What do you guys think? How would you feel if this was the canonical ending of the Pokémon anime? Do you like Shudo’s ideas? Sound off in the comments below!

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